Real life London in 1850. A journey through the back streets and into the lives of the people in early Victorian London. Henry Mayhew, the pioneering social investigative journalist, takes us around the capital and reveals a hidden life - the real Dickens' London. He ventures into places where only the very poorest are forced to tread, interviews the people encountered and publishes their words. In this volume we enter the workshops of the London toy makers and discover them crafting all manner of playthings from detonating crackers and penny carts to magic lanterns and rocking horses. We visit a Ragged School and controversially expose their links to crime. The merchant seamen entertain us with tales of life at sea before an extraordinary array of street performers, musicians, and artists describe their precarious lives. "Labour and the Poor", the acclaimed investigation into the poor of England and Wales, was undertaken from 1849 to 1851 by The Morning Chronicle, a leading London-based newspaper of the period. This remarkable series will take you into the cities, towns, and villages, into the mills, the factories, and the mines, hearing from the people themselves about their lives, their occupations, and their struggles for survival amidst the overwhelming poverty of the period. Brought to you in its entirety for the very first time, and including the Letters to the Editor, this extraordinary and unsurpassed investigation will show what life was really like in the mid-19th century - on the ground reporting at its very best. In this series:Volume I: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume II: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume III: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume IV: The Metropolitan Districts. Henry Mayhew. Volume V: The Manufacturing Districts. Angus B. Reach. Volume VI: The Rural Districts. Alexander Mackay and Shirley Brooks. Volume VII: The Rural Districts. Alexander Mackay and Shirley Brooks. Volume VIII: Wales. Special Correspondent. Volume IX: Birmingham. Charles Mackay. Volume X: Liverpool. Charles Mackay.